CS 71 
.C748 
1906 
COPY 1 



Hills 



The 

parentage 

and English 

progenitors 

of Nathaniel 

Coney of 

Boston, 

Mass. 





L 


CS 71 


, 


.C748 




1906 




Copy 1 





THE 

PARENTAGE AND ENGLISH PROGENITORS 



OF 



NATHANIEL CONEY 



OF BOSTON, MASS. 



THE 

PARENTAGE AND ENGLISH PROGENITORS 



OF 



NATHANIEL CONEY 



OF BOSTON, MASS. 



By 



THOMAS HILLS, 

OF BOSTON. 

Life Member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF DAVID CLAPP & SON. 
1906. 




G 



S \' at) 



w 



[Reprinted with additions from the N. E. Historical and Genealogical llegister 

for January, 1907.] 

9 M ^J7 



THE PARENTAGE AND ENGLISH PROGENITORS OF 
NATHANIEL CONEY OF BOSTON, MASS. 



In the spring of 1778, Deacou Samuel Cony, who was born in Boston, 
Mass., Apr. 15, 1718, the son of Nathaniel Coney and Abigail, daughter 
of Thomas Skinner and widow of Ebenezer Ager, removed from ]\Iassa- 
chusetts, where from his marriage he had been a resident yeoman of Stough- 
ton, Easton and Shutesbury, to what was then the district of Maine. He 
settled on the eastern bank of the Kennebec, at a place now within the 
limits of the city of Augusta. f/s-at^r- 

Jan. 28, 1742, he married Rebecca Guild of Dedham. They had eight 
children, five sons and three daughters. Their second son, the fourth 
child, was Daniel, born Aug. 3, 1752, in that part of Stoughton now the 
town of Sharon. He married, Nov. 14, 1776, Susanna, daughter of Rev. 
Philip and Elizabeth (Bass) Curtis. They had five children, all daughters. 
While Maine was still a part of Massachusetts, Judge Daniel, as he is 
known in the family, was successively representative, senator, and councilor, 
and after 1820, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and of Probate in 
the new State. He died Jan. 21, 1842. 

Samuel Cony, born Nov. 24, 1775, son of Samuel and grandson of the 
Deacon, was the first adjutant-general of the State of Maine. He married 
Susan, daughter of his uncle Daniel. They were the parents of that 
Samuel who, in turn, was mayor of Augusta, representative, councilor. 
Judge of Probate, State treasurer, and, during the civil war, Governor of 
the State. Another daughter, Sarah Lowell, born July 18, 1784, died 
Oct, 17, 1867, married, Nov. 19, 1807, Hon. Reuel Williams. Their son, 
Hon. Joseph H. Williams, rounded out his public service as acting gover- 
nor of Maine when Hannibal Hamlin resigned as governor to take his 
place as a senator of the United States. From Miss M. B. Fairbanks 
(daughter of Hon. Joseph W. and Susan E., of Farmington, Me.) a descen- 
dant of Jason D., son of Samuel and grandson of Deacon Samuel Cony, 
the writer has received so much assistance in the preparation of this paper 
that her name ought to be placed beside his own, to indicate joint author- 
ship. Evelina, daughter of Jason D., married Hon. Hiram Belcher, an 
old-time member of Congress; and their daughter Susan K. married Hon. 
Joseph W. Fairbanks, who gained his title as a member of the senate of 
Maine. Acknowledgment is also due to Joseph Gardner Bartlett, Esq., 
for valuable assistance, and to Mary H. Graves, for important information. 
It was natural that a family so distinguished should desire to know its an- 
cestry, especially as one of its members held evidence indicating tluit it was 
entitled to coat armor. Governor Williams assumed the task of tracing 
its pedigree. The result of his expenditure of time and money is embodied 
in a work of thirty-nine pages, fifty copies of which were printed for pri- 
vate distribution in 1885. One of them is in the library of the New 
England Historic Genealogical Society. Its statement in relation to coat 



armor follows : "The crest with the ' antient coate of Conny ' as seen in 
the Herald's Visitation of Lincolnshire, 1592, is 'a demi-coney sa. holding 
a pansy flower, purp. stalked and leaved, vert.' The traditional coat of 
arms of the family ' By the name of Coney ' is still preserved and cherished 
by the descendants of the late Judge Cony in Augusta. It is the same as 
that borne on the portrait of Dr. Robert Coniiy painted in the year 1722 
* * * and shows the family arms that were borne by Robert Conny of 
Godmanchester, plainly traceable to the ' antient Coate of Conny ' now to 
be seen among the manuscripts in the British Museum. * * * Tlie engrav- 
ing w^as greatly prized as an heir loom by Judge Cony who had it from his 
father, Deacon Samuel Cony, to whom it doubtless came from his father." 
The first appearance of the name of Kathaniel, the father of Deacon 
Samuel Cony, that Mr. "Williams had been able to discover in New England 
records, is that of his marriage in the town of Hingham, Mass. The 
printed record reads : " Mr. Nathaniel Coney & Mrs. Elizabeth Greenland 
both of Boston, married by Daniel Cushing J. P. Oct. 11, 1G99." The 
bride was born in Boston, May 28, 1679, the daughter of Daniel and 
Elizabeth Greenland. Mr. Williams knew that a John Coney had been 
of Boston more than forty years before the marriage of his ancestor Na- 
thaniel, and mentions him at the end of his book. That he was of Boston 
more than fifty years before the wedding of his son Nathaniel, appears by 
an item in vol. 32, page 281, of the Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, 
eighteen years subsequent to the publication of the Cony book by Mr. Wil- 
liams. It shows an assignment by John Milom, cooper, of " John Coneyes 
Indenture for the term of six months," giving his service (i)robably as a 
cooper's apprentice) for that time from Dec. 12, 1 649. One of the witnesses 
to the insti'ument was Robert Nash, who later became father-in-law of the 
young man. IMr. Williams must liave examined the records relating to 
this John, for the birth of a Nathaniel among his children, down to the 
time of his death, Dec. 24, 1690. What he found in the archives of Boston 
follows : " 1 654, John Conney & Elizabeth Nash daughter of Robert Nash 
of Boston were married 20*'' — 4"^ mouth (June) by Richard Bellinghara 
Dep. Gov." The children of John and Elizabeth (Nash) Conney, who 
are of record, were : 

John, b. in Boston, Jan. 5, 1655 ; m. (1) Sarah , whod. Apr. 17, 

1()94; m. (2) Nov. 8, 1(')94, INIary, dan. of Joshua Atwater and 
widow of Capt. John Clark, who d. Apr. 12, 1726. 

Sarah, b. in Boston, May 22, 1660. 

Joseph, b. in Boston, April 27, 1662. 

Eh*zal)eth, b. in Boston, Apr. 2, 1664 ; d. in Boston, June 16, 1664. 

AVilliam, b. in Boston, July 5, 1665. 

Thomas, b. in Boston, Sept. 26, 1667. 

Mary, b. in Boston, March 10, 1(')68. 

Rebecca, b. in Boston, June 18, 1670; m. in Boston, Dec. 7, 1692, 
Joyliefi"e Price. 

Elizabeth, b. in Boston, Feb. 24, 1671 ; m. Apr. 11, 1705, as his se- 
cond wife, Thomas Booth of Stratford, Conn. 

Benjamin, b. in Boston, Oct. 16, 1673. 

Robert Nash died Sept. 13, 1661. The record is silent as to the death 
of his wife or of his dauglitei- who married .John Coimey, but Mr. Williams 
could have found upon gravestones in the northwest angle of Granary 
Burying Ground inscriptions that would have told him that Elizabeth, wife 
of John Conney, died Dec. 16, 1687, aged 52, and that Sarah Nash died 



<'Nov. ye 14. 1688 aged about 89." The records of all the Coneys in 
New England down to the beginning of the 18th century were in eastern 
Massachusetts. None of them, in town, court or real estate registers, dis- 
close the name of a Nathaniel until nine years after John Conney had 
died. When Mr. Williams made his investigations, all the Coneys of New 
England could be traced as descendants of John, except those who 
claimed Nathaniel as their ancestor. With the record of John's children 
apparently complete, naturally he came to the conclusion that Nathaniel 
was an emigrant, and transferred his search to England for an ancestor. 
The coat-of-arms on the engraving that had belonged to his great-grand- 
father. Deacon Samuel Cony, guided him to the east of England, and to 
the vicinity of old Boston in Lincolnshire. In his researches he found 
the record of the Dr. Robert, whose portrait painted in 1722 is still 
preserved in the Bodleian library at Oxford, who, dying a childless 
widower in 1723, left his fortune to a cousin Sarah, who was sister to 
a Nathauael Conuy christened in 1665, concerning which Nathanael he 
found no trace of record of marriage or death in England. The for- 
tunate cousin expressed her gratitude by erecting a memorial to her bene- 
factor, embellished with the arms shown on the engraving once owned by 
Judge Cony of Augusta, Me. As a result of what he found, Mr. Williams 
stated his conclusions and belief that " the family of Conny in England was 
of French extraction. * * * Robert Connin, whose name stands at the 
head of the Conny pedigrees, came from Bayam (or Byam) in France. * * * 
the family in the fifteenth century was settled in South Lincolnshire. * * * 
There are several pedigrees of Robert's descendants in the line of eldest 
sons, in the British Museum, and all of them show that the Connys of 
Yaxley * * * were a branch of the family, through Robert, a son in the 
sixth generation from Robert of Byam. In this line, it is believed, came 
Robert of Godmanchester, a suburb of the town of Huntingdon, ten miles 
from Yaxley. John Conuy, a surgeon in the British navy and twice mayor 
of Rochester, county Kent, was a son of Robert of Godmanchester, Gent. 
*** He died in Aug., 1699, leaving an only son, Robert, born in 1665, 
who was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford," and settled in London 
as a physician, where he "died May 25. 1723 ** * and was buried in St. 
Nicholas Church in his native city. * * * The parish records of Godman- 
chester show that Robert Conny, the grandfather of Dr. Robert, had seve- 
ral other children beside John of Rochester, one of whom was Samuel, 
christened Oct. 5, 1 634, and that Samuel by his wife Mary, had eight chil- 
dren, among whom were Nathanael, christened Aug. 27, 1665, and Sarah 
christened May 24, 1672. This record, with other historical facts, justifies 
the belief that our ancestor, the immigrant Nathanial, was the Nathanial 
above mentioned, a son of Samuel of Godmanchester, a nephew of John of 
Rochester, a first cousin of Dr. Robert Conny, pliysician in London and 
brother of Sarah, who set a memorial tablet in honor of her cousin Dr. 
Robert, in the church at Rochester." 

It will be noticed that Governor Williams expressed a belief, but did 
not claim that his investigation disclosed absolute })roof. Godmanchester, 
in Huntingdonshire, where Nathanael Conny was christened in 1665, is 
about forty miles southwest of Boston in Lincolnshire. 

Conclusive evidence, lately disclosed, has demonstrated that the belief 
that Nathaniel Coney was an emigrant has no foundation in fact. That 
evidence is found in two deeds noted by Miss C. H. Abbott of Andover, in 
her genealogical researches in the registry of Middlesex Co. They clearly 



prove that Nathaniel, who in 1 090 married Elizabeth Greenland, was the son 
of John and Jllizabeth (Nash) Coniiey, and that the search for his English 
ancestry must be made throuoh that John whom Mr. Williams desiijnated as 
John the cooper. The story of a successful search can best be told by lirst 
giving such a sketch of the New England life of John Coney as can 
be made from public records and published works. The earliest record of 
him, in Dec, 1649, has already been mentioned. At the town meeting 
of F(jb. 25, 1655, with William Dinsdale, he was chosen a packer of 
fish and meat and a '"gager of cask," and was again chosen to that otRce 
in 1657. At the March meeting of 1669, he was chosen one of the 
town constables '' for the yeare eusuinge." In 1672, and again in 1686 
and 16(S7, he was one of the '' C'lerkes of ye market." In 1676, 1689-1690 
the " Moii''^ Council," having in the first named year informed the select- 
men that " complaint is made * * * y* y^ towne is in great danger of 
beinge Fired by ye insuffitiencie of Chimneys, & neglect of the owners," 
and liaving recommended eight citizens, of whom " Mr. John Cony " was 
the second named, to be inspectors impowered " to take continuall and effec- 
tuall care * * * and to amend forthwith what they fiude defective as to the 
chimnies " and •' order the seasonable sweepinge thereof," the selectmen 
duly appointed the nominees, jind the town in the last named years, when 
electing these' officers, put "Mr. John Cony Sen'' " at the head of the list. 
In 1677, "Ju° Cony's lane" was made abound for the walk of night 
watchmeu. This lane was the place of Mr. Coney's residence, and is now 
in that part of Cross Street, fiom a point about midway between Endicott 
and Salem Streets, to North Street. In 1678-80 he was one of five " to 
ouersee Cord'* of wood yt they be faith full in theire office," and in 1678 
he was one of a committee of six (two from each church) acting for the 
Second Church, to receive from the inhabitants " theire subscriptions to 
the CoUedge." 

This church organized in 1650 was long know^u as the Old North. It 
has also been called " the church of the Mathers," four of its early min- 
isters were of that family "for seventv-three of the first ninety-one years" 
of its existence. Increase, son of Kev. Kichard Mather of Dorchester, as 
its second minister, was installed May 27, 1664, and held the pulpit till 
his death, in 172.'). He was president of Harvard College from 1686 to 
1701. His son Cotton Mather was his colleague from 1684, and its min- 
ister at his death, in 1728. elohn Coney was admitted a member of the 
church in 1 672. The mother of the younger pastor was Maria, daughter of 
Rev. John Cotton of Boston in Lincolnshire, and Boston in New England, 
and of Sarah (Haw^kredd-Story) Cotton, sister of Elizabeth (llawkredd) 
Coney, the mother of .John. The military record of John Coney is as a mem- 
ber of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery, organized in 16.'J9, which still 
flourishes with headquarters in Boston, lie joined its ranks in 1662, and 
was a member of Capt. Thomas Savage's com[)any. Capt. Robert Keayne 
by his will having left £,'500 to the town of Boston for the building of a 
town house, twenty-iive members of the Artillery Company, John Coney 
amouir them, contributed to increase the fund. Another of the contributors 
was Thomas Makepeace, who joined the Company in 1 638, and who some 
three years later became the stepfather of the recruit of 1662. In 1672, 
the younger soldier was elected second sergeant of his company. The 
records of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay in New England, printed by 
order of the Legislature of the State in 1854, under date of June 11, 1680, 
register that "John Coney is apijointed Ensigue to Capt. Thomas Sauage 
his company." 



The last town record relating to him reads : " 1690 John Coney Senr. 
dyed Dec''. 24." That he was a man of considerable property may be 
inferred from the fact that a record shows that " Philipa King servant 
to John Conney " was married in May, 1()62, that his homestead, 
bonght in 1658, sold for £180, that one of the bounds of this lot was land 
previously acquired by him which is not of record, that in 1665 he bought 
a considerable estate on Copp's Hill, that in 1675 he sold " the good ship 
called the Rebecca and Elizabeth of Boston," of which he was one-eighth 
owner, for £420, and that at his death he held five hundred acres of land 
in the town of Dunstable. It is remarkable, under these conditions and the 
fact that he left a family of heirs, that his estate did not pass through the 
probate court, and still more remarkable that in less than five mouths from 
the date of his death his son John and daughters Rebecca and Mary (re- 
corded as Mercy) sold the homestead estate without other signatures to 
the deed than their own, except that of " Thomas Walter Administrator of 
the said John Coney dec*^^V' who does not again appear in any record aa 
acting in that capacity. The instrument of conveyance was an indenture 
with warranty against all persons. The grantee undoubtedly rested on the 
warranty of John, a goldsmith, whose estate, when Jie died, Aug. 20, 1722, 
inventoried about £4,000. It is regrettable that out of his abundant means 
he did not put a stone at his father's grave beside that which marks the 
resting place of his mother. John the goldsmith was the father of four 
sous and seven daughters. Two sons and two daughters died young. Of 
the survivors, Sarah was married to Samuel Gerrish, Anna to the Rev. 
Thomas Foxcroft. Mehitable to Francis Foxcroft, Mary to Seth Storer, 
and Abigail to Edward Bromfield. It is an interesting fact that Paul 
Revere senior (father of the Paul of the midnight ride of April 19, 1775), 
born in Europe of French parentage, Nov. 30, 1702, who came to Boston 
when thirteen years old, was apprenticed to John Coney to learn the trade 
of goldsmith. Records found in Middlesex Co. deeds determined tliat 
Nathaniel Coney was the son of flohn the cooper and brother of John 
the goldsmith. The date of his birth has not been discovered, but the 
present investigation has disclosed that of his death. Born in Boston, and 
clearly lesident of tlje town till 1720, his children born in Sudbury, Relio- 
both, and Stougliton in 1722, '24, '27 and '28, are of record among the 
Boston births. Among the early court files of Suffolk Co., Mass., there is 
preserved the original inquisition male in Boston, Nov. 20, 1742, ''In the 
sixteenth year of the reiyn of * * * George ye second, before James De- 
vonport one of the coroners of our said Lord the King * * * upon the view 
of the body of Nathaniel Coney then and there being dead." The four- 
teen jurors who signed the inquisition rendered as their verdict : " that the 
sayd Nathaniel Coney on the nineteenth Instant, being in his house in 
Boston aforesaid, by the act of God suddenly came to his Death." This 
finding must be deemed conclusive, notwithstanding that the records of the 
South Church of Dedliam contain this memorandum, which is evidently an 
interlineation: "1744. Died Mr. Nathaniel Coney of this church." Na- 
thaniel Coney married Elizabeth Greenland, Oct. 11, 1699. She died 
May 7, 1711. Their children were: 

John, b. in Boston, Jan. 14, 1700 ; d. Aug, 20, 1726. 

An infant, b, in Boston, -July 5, 1702; d. unnamed. 

An infant, b. in Boston, Apr. 4, 1704 ; d. unnamed. 

Nathaniel, b. in Boston, Dec. 18, 1705; d. Feb. 2, 1779. 

Daniel, b. in Boston, Oct. 17, 1709; m. Aug. 2, 1733, Sarah Jones. 

Sarah, b. in Boston, Mar. 20, 1711 ; m. Ebenezer Holmes. 



8 

Nathaniel Coney married, as his second wife, Abigail, daughter of 
Thomas Skinner and widow of Ebenezer Ager. The record of her first 
marriage reads :" Ebenezer Ager and Abigail Skinner, married by Mr. 
Cotton Mather Mar. 1, 1703 ;" that of her second, " Nathaull Coney and 
Abigail Ager, married by Rev. IMr. Eben'r Pemberton, Fresbytn. Sept. 6, 
1711." The children of Nathaniel and Abigail (Skinner-Ager) Coney 
were : 

Abigail, b. in Boston, July 28, 1712 ; m. Michael Lowell of Boston. 

Thomas, b, in Boston, July 2, 1714; d. May 16, 1749. 

Elizabeth, b. in Boston, May 15, 1716 ; m. Joseph Pittee of Walpole. 

Samuel, b. in Boston, Apr. 15, 1718 ; m. Rebecca Guild of Dedham. 

Mary, b. in Boston, Mar. 18, 1720 ; m. Samuel Pittee of Walpole. 

Priscilla, b. in Sudbury, Apr; 2, 1722 ; unman-ied. 

Josei)h, b. in Rehoboth, INIay 8, 1724; m. Sarah Savell of Roxbury. 

William, b. in Rehoboth, Mar. 29, 1726 ; m. Mehitable Ellis of Ded- 
ham. 

Anna, b. in Stoughton, Sept. 23, 1728 ; m. as his second wife, Aaron 
Guild of Dedham. 
Abigail (Skinner-Ager) Coney died before Dec. 27, 1736, at which date 
Nathaniel Coney married Mary Royal of Boston, the officiating clergyman 
being Rev. Thomas Foxcroft, the husband of his niece Mary. That the 
thrice married Nathaniel was the son of John Coney the cooper is clearly 
proved by two Middlesex Co. deeds, as stated previously in this article. 
By the fii'st, dated Mar. 4, 1716, " John Coney of Boston * * * goldsmith 
eldest son and joint heir of John Coney of Boston aforesaid deceased," 
conveys to his brother all the land " laid out to Mi-. John Coney * * * five 
hundred acres on the north east side of Merrimack River in the township 
of Dunstable," and the grantor recites, "whereas the said John Coney 
deceased left several children heires to the said lot as well as his other 
estate : now know ye tliat I the said John Coney eldest son as aforesaid, 
out of that love and aifection which I have and do bear unto my brother 
Nathaniel Coney of Boston aforesaid, Taylor, Have granted," etc. The 
second deed, dated Jan. 23, 1716-17, is from " Nathaniel Coney of Boston 
in the county of Suffolk in New England, Taylor," and Abigail his wife, 
to Thomas Hutchinson of Boston. It conveys the same five hundred acres 
and recites, " 1 the said Nathaniel Coney do covenant that * * * I am the 
true sole and legal owner of the said land * * * partly in right of my father 
John Coney late of said Boston, Cooper, who died seized thereof in fee, and 
the remainder was given and granted to me by my brotliers John and Ben- 
jamin Coney and my sister Elizabeth Booth, who were children and heirs 
of my said father." 

Tht; line to an English emigrant is clear for all the descendants of 
Natlianicl Coney; it only remains to show the English parentage. That 
it will be found that the immigrant was from Lincolnshire, can be in- 
ferred from the fact that the compiler of the Cony book found that 
the family was settled in that shire as early as the fifteenth century ; and 
that, although in our day those carrying its name are not numerous in that 
county, its surname being an unconnnon one, it is the only shire in Eng- 
land in which a sufficient number of Coneys reside to bring the name 
within the classification made by Mr. Henry Brougham Guppy, in 1890, 
in his " Homes of Family Names in Great Britain." In his work, that 
gentleman took the farmers of the land as the "most stay at home class," 
and by the directories of the various counties classified their names where 



9 

he found that they exceeded seven in ten thousand. His sixth and lowest 
classification is of " Peculiar names, which are mostly confined to one 
county and generally to a particular parish or division of that county." 
In this class he places the name Coney, eight farmers carrying it among 
ten thousand yeomen of Lincolnshire. 

Acknowledgment has already been made of the assistance rendered by 
Mr. Bartlett in the preparation of this article. But after its proof had 
issued from the press, he still continued his investigations, with the result 
that the conclusion of its author that the parentage of the John Coney who 
married Elizabeth Nash was proved beyond a reasonable doubt, was proved 
conclusively. Two alternatives were open — to rewrite much of the work 
or to adapt what was already in type to the changed situation. The latter 
course has been adopted, and matter already in the printer's form has been 
allowed to stand, when to eliminate it would result in suppressing the recital 
of incidents of interest to descendants of the progenitors of Nathaniel 
Coney ; notwithstanding the apparent incongruity of retaining statements 
tending to prove by inference and deduction what had been established by 
direct evidence. 

The Rev. John Cotton, who for more than twenty years was vicar of 
the parish of St. Botolph's in Boston, Lincolnshire, arrived at Boston ia 
New England, Sept. 3, 1633. He was born in Derby, England, bap- 
tized there Dec. 15, 1584, and died at Boston, Mass., Dec. 15, 1652. His 
will, probated in Suffolk Co., contains this clause : " I give unto hir my 
well beloved wife, first all rents of hir house & garden in ye market place 
of Boston in Lincolnshire, w*^^ are myne by right of marryage with hir 
during my life. Item. I give unto hir what moneys were left in my 
brother Coneyes hand, & are now in ye use of my sister Mary Coneye his 
wife or my cosigne John Coneye their sonne, so far as my pcell yt of 
Remayneth in their hand." Volume IV of the Heraldic Journal shows 
that his father was Roland Cotton, of the eleventh generation from his 
earliest known paternal ancestor. The list of his children, as given, is : 

Mary, bapt. 1 Sept., 1583 ; m. Robert Bamford. 

John, bapt. 15 Dec, 1584. 

Roland, bapt. 17 Mar., 1588. 

Thomas, bapt. 19 May, 1594. 
Mr. Pishey Thomson, in his History and Antiquities of Boston, Eng- 
land, quotes the clause of Rev. John Cotton's will, and evidently relied 
on it literally, and in another part, referring to the children of Roland 
Cotton, states that his daughter '' Mary — younger than John, was married 
to Mr. Thomas Coney Town Clerk of Boston and survived her husband. 
She was hurried 15 Jan. 1655." This statement will be shown to be 
erroneous both as to fact and date. 

A correspondence with the vicar of St. Botolph's, which began in Feb- 
ruary and continued to July, 1906, has given information which, added to 
that on this side of the Atlantic, satisfactorily accounts for the presence 
of John Coney in New England, and to determine his parentage. " An- 
thony Hawkredd of Boston, gentleman," was forty-four years old at the 
time of his second marriage, in July, 1615. His birth year must have 
been about 1571. In his will, dated Aug. 12, 1626, he mentions sons 
Anthony, John and Samuel, Assuming that they were named in the 
order of their birth, they were all born after 1606, for "Anthony Hawkredd 
of Boston, gentleman, jet 18," was duly licensed to marry Jane Aiscough, 
Sept. 14, 1625. 



10 

Lincoln marriage licences and Lincolnshire pedigrees show that the 
second wife of Anthony Hawkredd, senior, was Elizabeth, daughter of 
Thomas Hatcher and widow of Francis, son of Sir P^dward Ayscough. 
The Hatcher pedigree goes back to 1556 and quotes a record in the Heralds 
Colleo"e of (;oat armor. The Ayscoughs were also armigers and their pedi- 
gree extends nine generations back of a Sir William Ayscough, Chief 
Justice of Common Pleas, who died in the thirty-fourth year of Henry VI, 
whose reign began in 1421. 

The elder Anthony had three daughters, whose marriage dates indicate 
that they were older than their brothers. Mary married Thomas Co- 
ney who became town clerk of Boston about 1(320. Thomson says the 
marriage was in 1(518. The parish register of St. Botolph's has record 
of the marriage of "William Story and Sara Hawkrit May 11, 1619," 
and of "John Conye and PLlizabeth Hawkred Dec. 16, 1624." The 
testator of the will of Aug., 1626, mentions daughters Mary wife of Thomas 
Coney, and Elizabeth wife of John Coney. Thomas and John were broth- 
ers. The baptismal record is clear as to the first named ; it reads in the 
parish register: "Feb. 21, 1599, Thoiuas Conie sou of John Conie." As 
to that of his brother, the vicar's clerk writes : " that of John, 1 cannot 
come across, altho I have made a careful search, I send a tracing of the 
one which may be it ; but one line is so run into another that I am not 
certain it is. '21 Oct. 1596. John son of John Conoke,' or it may be 
Conie ; I cannot tell. You will see the tails of the line above go right 
throuo-h the name." The clerk correctly describes the obscurity, though 
it requires the help of one's imagination to see the resemblance of a h 
entangled in the loop of a y or a z of the line above. The marriage licenses 
of Lincolnshire contain this item: " 1624 — Nov. 29, John Coney of * * * 
aU. 26 and Elizabeth Hawkred of same, Sp'' [Boston]." The printed page 
shows clearly that the scribe that })repared the copy for the press could not 
read all of the crabbed scrii)t, and as to the residence of the young candi- 
dates for matrimony, couhl only guess that a certain jumble of lines was 
intended for tlie written word Boston. In modern writing it is easy to 
mistake an 8 and read it as 6. It is safe to conclude that the copyist was 
not as successful in reading the unit figure in tlie numerals that expressed 
John Coney's age as he was in guessing the place of his home. Ann, 
daughter of Jolin Coney, died in Feb., 1652. A record of burial, in the 
Register of St. Botolph, which reads, "Mrs. Ann Cunny, widow, 9 May 
1652," doubtless is that of the interment of the child's grandmother. 

William Story, the husband of Sarah Hawkredd, was buried at Boston, 
Mar. 16, 1628, and on the 25th Apr., 16;)2, she married llev. John Cotton 
whose first wife had died. So it was becauso Thomas Coney was husband 
of his wife's sister that Mr. Cotton left moneys in his " brother Coneye's 
hand," referred to his wife as " my sister Mary Coneye," and to his nephew 
by marriage as " my cosigne John Coneye their sonne." 

Following first the line of Thomas the town clerk, and that of his son 
John who .succeeded him in his office, the parish record shows the baptism 
of the first child of Thomas and Mary (Hawkredd) Coney, which reads: 
" John, son of Thomas Coney, gent, baptised Nov. 28, 1619." The father 
held his town oilice fioni 1620 to 1647. Thompson says he died July 31, 
1649. The register of St. Botolph's has this record: "John Conny and 
Ann Mit(;hell married by license 16 Jan. 16:38." This was the John who 
succeeded his father as town clerk. He died not later than 1653. 

A letter from the town clerk of old Boston, dated May 24, 1906, justifies 



11 

the inference that the office is much less important than in the municipali- 
ties of New England. To a request that he give the first and last date of 
service of the younger Coney as clerk of the town, and a tracing of his 
signature for comparison with an autograph found in the early court files 
of Essex Co., he answered that, for the j^eriod named (1647-1653), the 
only reference he could find to a Coney was " his name in the index and 
the page to which such index refers is not in the book." Nor could he 
give a tracing of the signature of the scribe of the seventeenth century, 
" as the minutes of the proceedings of meetings are signed by the chair- 
man and not by the town clerk." In this connection it may be stated that 
the autograph of John the cooper was annexed to the return of a writ dated 
at Boston Jan. 19, 1669, which required "the marshall of the County of 
Suffolk or his deputy or a constable of Boston * * * to attach the goods 
and for want thereof the body of William Cotton, and to take bond of him 
to the value of £20 * * * for his appearance at the next court to be held 
at Ipswich, then and there to answer the complaint of Paull White in an 
action for debt." 

The return was endorsed on the writ. The writing, clear and easily 
read, indicates that the writer had an education much above the average 
of that of the business men of that date. Exception, however, might be 
taken by advocates of simplified spelling to his orthography, for he states 
that he " attached the booddy of William Cotton * * * and committed him 
to prison : for want of baile." Considering the many diffei-ent spellings 
of the Coney surname, it will be interesting to his descendants to know 
that his official signature was written n_ /^ 

The children of John and Ann (Mitchell) Coney of Boston, Lincoln- 
shire, were : 

Jane, bapt. Jan. 24, 1640 ; buried June 25, 1642. 
Raphell, bapt. Oct. 16, 1643 ; buried Mar. 16, 1647. 
Ann, bapt. -June 11, 1648. The record of her burial reads: "Ann ye 
dau. of John Cuny-gent. 28 Feb. 1652." 
That John and Ann Coney had another daughter whose baptism is not 
of record, or if recorded not found by the parish clerk, appears from an 
entry which reads : 

Mary, dau. of John Cuny, gent., bur. Aug. 18, 1649. 
The second sou of Thomas and Mary (Hawkredd) Coney was "Anthonie 
* * * bapt. 1 Aug. 1622," and no subsequent record relating to him was 
found. 

The third and youngest son of those parents was 

" Raphell, son of Thomas Couny, gent., bapt. Dec. 6, 1 629." His burial 
record reads •' Raphael, son of Thomas Cony, 26 Dec. 1642." 
The closing record of this line is among the baptisms : 
"John, ye soon of John Cuuny gent, lait deceased, 1 June 1654." 
The only John Coney of the line of Thomas and Mary, who was living 
in 1654, was an infant when John the cooper married Elizabeth Nash in 
New England. 

Volume 53 of the New England Historical and Genealogical 
Register, shows on its 301st page a series of notes coutributed by the late 
William S. Appleton ; one of them relating to a will reads : " Mary Cony 



12 

of Boston, Lincolnshire, widow, reverend and dear brother Mr. John Cot- 
ton of JSew England, sisters Cotton & Makepeace, John & Elizabeth, chil- 
dren of late brother Samuel Hawcrid, cousin Dr. Tuckney, sons Samuel 
& John, 1652, proved 1 653." This abstract of a record proves that Thomp- 
son was in error in stating that Mary wife of Thomas Coney died in 1655. 

Following now the line of John Coney (son of John and brother of 
Thomas), who was born 1596, and in 162-4 married Elizabeth Hawkredd, 
the parish register is silent as to the wife, but closes the career of the hus- 
band with the record: "John Cony, gent, buried April 6, 1630." 

Their children are of record as follows : 

Marie, dau. of John Conie, bapt. Oct. 9, 1625. 
Mary, dau. of John Cony, bur. Dec. 10, 1625. 
Marie, dau. of John Conny, bapt. June 28, 1627. 
Mai'y, dau. of John Coney, bui*. Aug. 16, 1627. 
John, son of John Connie, bapt. July 17, 1628. 
Marie, dau. of John Conny, bapt. May 2, 1630. 

So it appears that in 1654, among the descendants of Anthony Hawkredd, 
there were but two John Coneys living : one the infant grandson of his 
daughter Mary, and the other the John baptized July 17, 1628, wdio was 
the only son of his daughter Elizabeth. At that date, all but one of the 
sisters of the latter John Coney were dead, as were all his cousins the 
children of Thomas and Mary (Hawkredd) Coney, with the possible ex- 
ception of Uiat Anthony who was baptized in Aug., 1622. John's father 
had died when he was less than two yeai's old ; his mother soon married 
Oliver Mellows. The marriage was probably in England. It is not of 
record in Boston, New England, where Dec. 7, 1634, Samuel, son of Oliver 
Mellows, was baptized, and where in 1636 Martha, and in 1638 Mary, 
his sisters, were also baptized. Rev. John Cotton, in his will of 1652, 
wrote : " I give to my kinswoman Martha Mellows the sume of five marks." 
Some two years later she became, by marriage, Martha Waters. Pope, in 
his ■' Pioneers of Massachusetts," says that Oliver Mellows of Boston and 
his wife were admitted to the church in July, 1634 ; that he died at Brain- 
tree ; that administration of his estate was granted to his widow, in Dec, 
1638, and that slie subsequently married Thomas Makepeace. The Make- 
peace Genealogy states that " It appears that Mr. Makepeace lived (1641) 
at Dorchester. * * He married, about this time, Mrs. Elizabeth Mellowes, 
of lioston, for his second wife ; for in the records of the First Church, 
Boston, is found the following : ' The 25th day of y® 5th Mon : 1641. Mrs. 
Elizabeth Makepeace, lately called Mrs. Elizabeth Mellowes, but now y® 
wife of ]\Ir. Makepeace, of Dorchester, was granted tre of Recommendation 
thether.' " This work gives the death of her third husband as of Jan. or 
Feb., 1667. So it appears that his widow at his death was the mother of 
Jolm and Mary Coney, and of Samuel, Martha, and Mary Mellows. Mary 
Coney, born in Kngland in 1630, married James Dt'nnis ; and the marriages 
of Martha Mellows to Joseph Waters, and of Mary Mellows to Emanuel 
Springiicld, are of record in Boston. The Springfields evidently returned 
to England. The will of Thomas Makepeace mentions " his well beloved 
wife Elizabeth," and contains this item: " I give to my wife's three daugh- 
ters, vizt. unto Mary, the wife of James Dennis of Boston, and to Martha, 
the wife of Joseph Waters of Milford, and to Mary the wife of Emanuell 
Springfield in Old England, * * * to each and every of them * * * the 
sume of fifty shillings." 



13 

Sarah Hawkredd, who married first William Story and then the Rev. 
John Cotton, married, for her third husband, the Rev. Richard Mather, 
pastor to the church of Dorchester. Gov. John Endicott was the magis- 
trate who united them, on Aug. 26, 1656. That she retained her property 
in England appears from her marriage settlement, dated July 8, 1656, and 
her wtll, dated May 3, 1670, probated in 1676. The later instrument 
contained these bequests : " To my sister Makepeace one gown if she sur- 
vive me. * * * I give to my sisters children John, Mary and Martha, to 
each of them a book." 

The combination of the several personal indentifications shown in the 
wills of the Rev. John Cotton, Mary (Hawkredd) Coney, and her sister 
Sarah (Hawkredd-Story-Cotton) Mather, and of Thomas Makepeace, would, 
without other evidence, establish the fact that Elizabeth ( Ilawkredd-Coney- 
Mellows) Makepeace left England soon after the death of her first husband, 
and shows her relationship, and that of the two little children she brought 
with her to her new home, to these different testators and to the children 
her second husband. And the evidence, taken as a whole, determines 
beyond question that the two neices mentioned in their Aunt Sarah's 
will were Mary (Coney) Dennis and Martha (Mellows) Waters, and that 
the nephew to whom she bequeathed a book was that John, son of " John 
Cony gentleman" and Elizabeth, daughter of "Anthony Hawkredd of 
Boston gentleman," who was baptized in Boston, Lincolnshire, July 17, 
1628, and who married, June 20, 1654, Elizabeth Nash of Boston in New 
England. 



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